Even though I shoot JPEG and raw, I always have Lightroom set to not import jpegs side by side with raw files. Its just annoying and distracting that the catalog fills up with images that are not wanted or used.

But did you know that what ends up happening is that JPEGs you don't want are still copied into your destination folder by Lightroom on import when you do a copy? I didn't - and I found that my hard drive filled up with a load of unwanted JPEG files. Over time it is surprising just how many there are, taking up space and not being used.

JPEG + raw

There are many reasons to shoot JPEG and raw together, either to get an image off of the camera and into production or to share as quickly as possible, or because your camera renders JPEG presets beautifully and you want to keep post processing to a minimum, or you hate post processing all together.

Fuji shooters need to shoot JPEG plus raw to check sharpness at 100% - on a Fuji this (annoyingly) cannot be done off of the JPEG that the camera renders for viewing on the lcd when shooting raw only. So in order to reliably check focus at 100% there is a need to shoot JPEG alongside raw.

Well, thanks JPEG you have been very helpful...doesn't mean I want you to hang around forever, necessarily!!

Treat the same, or seperate?

In Lightroom CC, you have the option to load in JPEGs alongside raw files when you perform an Import from your card into your Lightroom catalog (Lightroom>Preferences>General>Treat JPEG files next to raw files as seperate photos). If you uncheck this box, and you use the Import>Copy function, Lightroom will STILL copy the JPEGs to your destination folder but just not show them in the catalog.

To make matters worse there is no option to disregard the JPEGs and not copy them to disk at all - ticking the "Treat JPEG files next to raw files as seperate photos" checkbox simply hides the JPEGS in your catalog.

Import, filter….check for keepers...delete

So you are looking to save a bit of space on your hard drive? Storage is cheap but money doesn't grow on trees right?

If you add an extra step to your workflow to “unhide” these JPEGs by checking the "Treat JPEG files next to raw files as seperate photos” checkbox, you can quickly filter them out and delete them from the disk right after import.

Simply use the Metadata library filter, filter by file type and select JPEG - this will show you all of the jpegs that you just imported, and you can select all and press delete, then delete from disk to banish them from your hard drive forever.

One tip though, make sure you do have a peak at the gorgeous JPEGs that your modern camera is making for you - especially Fuji users might decide to keep a few JPEGs and save the editing time on the raw for a rainy day!